The Silver emerged in 2021 as a new band from members of Horrendous and Crypt Sermon that explored different musical influences than their other projects, pulling more from black metal and progressive/gothic ends of the spectrum. Their debut Ward of Roses showcased a group that had already come to the table with a fully formed sound and writing that set them apart, and now sophomore effort Looking Glass Hymnal Blue pushes things further out. The material channels some of black metal’s bombastic moments alongside soaring heavy metal while retaining the foundation from its predecessor, making for a bolder and more expressive listen that has a lot of staying power.
The promo material for Looking Glass Hymnal Blue mentions the band sought to capture the grandiosity of the opera when writing this material and that comes through in how they’ve structured everything, as the peaks reach even greater heights and there are more nuances and restrained periods in between. This isn’t necessarily reflected within every song, but rather in how the album flows together as a whole, as The Silver utilizes shorter tracks like “Tendrils” and “Twilight of My Love” to offer a concentrated dose of the harshest and reflective sides of their sounds in between the longer arrangements. Where the debut bore a lot of resemblance to the type of progressive writing Ihsahn offered on his solo work, this time around the sound has a lot more heavy metal in the mix that gives off a different feeling. The title track is a great example, as it initially has layers of guitar that fuse black metal’s abrasiveness with somber gothic melodies, but around the two-and-a-half-minute mark the band pivots to a gallop that’s as much Iron Maiden as it is black metal. On the progressive end of the spectrum, songs like “Memorias” have a free-flowing cadence and melodies that remind me of a metallic take on The Mars Volta’s De-Loused in the Comatorium. The Silver hasn’t necessarily gone full-on shred mode like Worm did on their most recent album, but you can hear similar nods to the same types of heavy metal influences throughout Looking Glass Hymnal Blue alongside a significant emphasis on gothic metal and rock textures on the later tracks. Despite the amount of ground covered, everything comes together in a seamless way and the frantic and powerful climaxes of many of these songs result in moments that will stick with you after the first time through.
On Looking Glass Hymnal Blue the vocals are once again split between two of the members, and the shifts between harsh and clean pitches gives the material a very dynamic feel. Songs like “Two Candles” run the full range of the band’s abilities, offering airier singing, raspy screams, and even some spoken word that head in some unpredictable directions over its runtime. The higher range of the screams and shrieks remind me of Ihsahn and even Tribulation at certain points, but there are a lot of differences that give The Silver their own sound. On the clean side of the spectrum, the singing still gives off a combination of gothic and progressive rock/metal influences with maybe even a bit of post hardcore due to its expressiveness. The trade-off between the two continues to draw me in, and while there are a few passages that came off as a bit too cheesy the performance certainly captured that operatic tone the band was going for in an effective way.
While the music is just as progressive and gothic sounding as before, The Silver have tweaked their sounds in ways that makes Looking Glass Hymnal Blue even more bombastic and full of intense, emotive peaks. The way the songs ebb and flow is compelling, and with a bit more heavy metal driving things forward there’s plenty here to draw listeners in. I do think the shift between the harsh and clean vocals may make this an acquired taste for some, but for my tastes this is an album that has a lot of staying power and is genuinely exciting to listen to. Looking Glass Hymnal Blue is available from Gilead Media.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg